


The DVD Pressed Play

by baloobird



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Anti-Starker, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Endgame, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, SO MUCH FLUFF, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark is a Good Dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baloobird/pseuds/baloobird
Summary: Tony Stark doesn't hate sleeping, he really doesn't...he's just not a fan of what he sees when he's asleep.Like his kid dying...again.And this night is no different, but why does this dream feel so much more real than the others?So real that he actually thought he lost his kid again.Replaying in his head as if it's a DVD.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 12
Kudos: 201





	The DVD Pressed Play

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RebecaThomas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebecaThomas/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BECA!!!! I hope your birthday is as wonderful and amazing as you are! Your love and support means everything to me and you're just a wonderful chicken nugget and NEVER CHANGE EVER💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

Tony Stark is no stranger to nightmares.

Even before the snap and everything with Thanos, those less than stellar images of the wormhole, the love of his life falling into a fire-covered abyss, his former friend shoving his dad’s shield in his chest, they’re just some of the reasons why he prefers to stay up for three days straight in the lab.

Because in the lab, he can focus on the tasks at hand, he even has his mind trained to not stray so much to those awful memories.

If only he can do that while he’s asleep.

Which is why he now has this “three-day” routine that he unintentionally started back not long after everyone returned from the snap. If Tony stays awake for three days straight, he’ll be so exhausted that he’ll  _ have _ to sleep...and his mind won’t think to dream.

But tonight, this plan is not working in his favor.

Tony sees that wrinkly purple monster, he’s in hand-to-hand combat with the guy who’s at least triple his size. Why the fuck he did that, the billionaire will never know.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, he guesses.

The whole scene plays before him, as vivid as if he’s there all over again. The stab in his past self’s abdomen, Doctor Strange making the dumbest decision ever and giving Thanos the time stone, Peter helping his wounded mentor stand up, the Guardians doing the same with each other.

The hero sees the one girl with the antennas vanish before their eyes. That one guy with the obsession of  _ Footloose, _ he asks, “Did we just lose?”

And that is the million-dollar question:

_ Did _ they just lose?

Their answer is confirmed when that one guy with red and blue tattoos disappears as well.

He did it, Tony remembers thinking, Thanos actually won.

That  _ Footloose _ dude disappears not long after his comrade. Doctor Strange says, “This is the only way” before he fades to ash as well.

Now what a crock of wizard shit was that?

But then Tony hears two little words that make every hair on his body stand straight up.

“Mr. Stark….”

_ No...no, no, no, no, not the kid. _

Peter says, a grimace etched on his face, “I don’t feel so good….”

Current-Tony can feel himself dreaming, can feel his mind telling him to get out, get out,  _ get out. _

But that’s the downside of sleeping for the first time in three days: his body is so exhausted that it doesn’t have the strength to wake up.

So he’s living this nightmare all over again.

_ Wake. The fuck. Up. _

The man’s dream self looks on as his past self sees his kid slowly breaking down to ash and nothing in the world can be done to stop it.

He can only look at him in hopelessness.

His heart breaks at seeing his protege start to panic, “I-I don’t, I don’t what’s happening -”

The older genius says, his dream self remembering that he tried to soften the blow, “You’re alright.”

Present-Tony has no choice but to watch as the kid collapses into his hero’s arms, gripping on for dear life and chanting, “I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go….”

_ No, not again...not again. _

The man can feel his body trying to wake up. How can he be so conscious that he’s dreaming but he can’t do anything about it?

It’s like he’s in surgery and he wakes up too early from the anesthesia, feeling every poke and prod that the doctors are doing to him but there’s no way to let them know he’s awake.

_ WAKE. UP. _

While still dreaming, Tony sees him and his kid fall to the ground. He remembers physically feeling the tyke disappearing under his grip but refusing to let go, refusing to believe that this innocent child is about to...about to….

Peter says a soft “I’m sorry” before his suffering finally ends and he vanishes like the others.

_ Was _ it suffering, current-Tony thinks, he’s never asked him...he’s not entirely sure if he wants to know.

Actually yeah, yeah he does. If the child suffered, Tony has a right to know, damn it.

Past-Tony falls to the ground, covered in ash, covered in  _ Peter’s _ ash, waiting to fade away himself.

But no...life didn’t give him that luxury.

Tony then finally comes to, taking in a huge breath as he wakes up. He turns to lay on his back as he soaks in the safety of his bedroom. The man hears a light snore on his right and sighs relievedly at seeing his wife asleep next to him.

_ It was just a dream...it was all just a dream. _

The mechanic continues taking deep breaths for the next minute or so, slowly calming down and telling himself that he is, in fact, in his bedroom and not on Titan, Thanos is dead, and everyone is back.

But then he starts to overthink.

_ Is _ everyone back?

Without stopping to let logic catch up to him, Tony gets out of bed and heads to his protege’s room.

His kid is there, he knows his kid is there, but still...what’s the harm in checking, he thinks.

Tony passes his daughter’s room first and takes a quick peek inside to see her fast asleep, gloved toy blaster snug on her hand.

_ Okay, one kid down. _

The hero then looks inside the teenager’s bedroom and he swears his heart dropped to the floor.

The bed is empty.

The pillows are at odd angles, covers are pushed back, and lacking a one Peter Parker.

Tony rushes to the bed and starts frantically searching, pulling back the covers, looking underneath the pillows, leaning over the bed to look at the other side of it. The logical part of his brain knows how absurd this is, like a whole-ass human being could really hide under pillows, but at the moment he doesn’t care except  _ where the fuck is his kid. _

It happened again...Thanos is back.

The man completely messes up the bed in a state of panic, knocking pillows onto the floor alongside the covers, skewing the mattress, moving the frame to look under the bed.

And still no sign of Spider-Man.

_ Thanos is back, he snapped his fingers. The kid’s gone again, he’s gone, he’s fucking gone. _

_ And I can’t get him back. _

Tony’s eyes start to water with tears as the realization sets in. He’s never going to see his kid again...no more hangouts in the lab, picking him up from school or bringing him along on road trips, his kid is  _ gone. _

And he just got him back too. After five long, miserable years, he got him back only to be taken from him all over again.

_ Why does God hate me so much? _

He puts his hands on the now destroyed bed and leans over it, taking even more deep breaths and closing his eyes to keep the tears from falling. The billionaire is then startled back to reality when he hears an all too familiar whisper, “Mr. Stark?”

Tony spins around, so fast that he’s momentarily dizzy. And there, in the doorway, is his spider-boy.

Peter’s eyebrows narrow in utter confusion as he focuses on the state of both his father figure and his bed, “Is everything okay, what happened?”

His hero doesn’t answer. Instead, he rushes to the tyke and engulfs him into a bone-crushing hug, “Thank God you’re okay.”

The teen tentatively hugs back, still baffled as all hell, “Um, Mr. Stark...I just went to the bathroom.”

Tony pulls back but doesn’t let go of his kid, looking confused himself, “What?”

“Yeah, I woke up and I had to pee...um, sorry?” 

The older man lets go of his grip and takes a step back, laughing hysterically. He then covers his eyes in shame and says between bouts of laughter, “Right, right...why else would you be out of bed at this hour,  _ God, _ I’m such a dumbass -”

“No, no, it’s fine, sorry I scared you...talk about bad timing, huh?”

“You ain’t kidding.” Tony releases his hand and glances at the kid’s bed. Mortification immediately filters through him, “I’m so sorry -”

“No, like I said, it’s fine, it’s okay.” Peter steps closer to his mentor and awkwardly starts rubbing his upper arm in comfort, “It’s really nice, actually, that you care. Again, I’m sorry -”

“Nope,” the mechanic cups Peter’s neck, causing the tyke to drop his hand, “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m just...a mess.”

The spiderling smirks, “Aren’t we all.”

Tony takes another slight glance at the currently inhabitable bed and asks, “You still tired?”

His intern snorts, “Not anymore. You?”

“Hell no. I want coffee, you want coffee? Screw it, let’s get coffee.”

“I thought you didn’t want me drinking coffee -”

“Which is why you’re getting decaf.”

“You  _ have _ decaf?”

“Pepper got it ‘cuz it’s better for me than regular coffee...which is why it’s collecting dust in the back of the cabinet.”

The kid snickers, “Your secret’s safe with me.”

Tony ruffles Peter’s hair and wraps his arm around the spider-boy’s shoulders, leading him out of the bedroom, “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”

“Says the guy who messed up my bed -”

_ “Hush.” _

-

The coffees are soon made and the two heroes are sitting on the couch, sipping their piping hot beverages.

They don’t say much at first.

Tony doesn’t know what to say that won’t make him sound like a bigger idiot than he already is and Peter...well, he  _ really _ doesn’t know what to say.

The teenager sets his mug on the coffee table and crosses his legs up onto the couch before he starts twiddling his thumbs in his lap. After a few awkward seconds pass, he asks meekly, “You wanna talk about it?”

The mechanic sighs deeply to stall his answer. He then says, gripping his own mug in his lap, “How ‘bout we just...never bring this up again, huh?”

Peter turns to him with an unamused expression on his face, “When the shoes are switched, you never let me off that easy, why should I do that to you?”

“You’re a kid, you’re supposed to talk about your shit.”

“And you’re not?”

“I’m the adult, I do what I want.”

“Oh yeah? What d’ya wanna do right now?”

Tony hesitates before he responds, “Sleep.”

“So why don’t you just  _ go to sleep?” _

“‘Cuz I’m not tired.”

“Yeah you are, so why not just go to sleep?”

“I just can’t. Sometimes you sleep good and sometimes you don’t, tonight’s just one of those nights.”

“You’re making it sound as if you’re sleeping  _ every _ night.”

Tony gives his kid a look of confusion. The spiderling smirks and continues, “You’re not as good at hiding this as you think you are.”

“Kid -”

“You don’t have to actually say anything but...I’m just worried, that’s all. Are you okay, what was that back there?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Bullshit.”

“Hey -”

“I’m serious -”

“Did it hurt?”

Peter is taken aback, “Did what hurt?”

Tony swallows a lump in his throat, regretting the split-second decision he just made, “The snap...did it hurt?”

The tenseness suddenly flooding the living room told the man everything he needed to know. The kid’s fidgeting increases, making Tony’s chest fill with guilt. He then reassures the boy, “You don’t have to answer that -”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“Yeah...it hurt. Why do you wanna know?”

Tony ignores the question, “How bad?”

The kid’s eyes widen in fear, “You don’t wanna know, why do you wanna know -”

“‘Cuz I  _ have _ to know, Pete. Have you told anyone?”

“Why should I if it’s over now?”

The older man grunts, “I thought the same thing.”

“What?”

“No point in talking about it if it’s over...but my mind likes replaying it like it’s a DVD, y’know?”

Peter nods his head in understanding, “Is that what happened tonight? Didya have a bad dream?”

Tony sighs once again, “The DVD pressed play...I thought I lost you again.”

“Oh...I’m sorry -”

“You have nothing to be sorry for -”

“I know, but I still feel bad.” The teenager scoots closer to his hero, “The DVD plays in my head too. Kinda comes with the territory, I guess.”

“Unfortunately.”

Silence falls over them once again, with Tony resting against the couch cushions and the kid leaning against his father figure’s upper arm. The man puts down his mug of now lukewarm coffee on the end table and adjusts that arm so that it’s wrapped around his kid instead of him leaning against it. He half-smiles and asks, “Better?”

Peter smiles contently while settling into the crook of the man’s shoulder, “Yeah...you should mess up my bed more often.”

Tony immediately feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment, “I can’t believe I did that -”

“It’s okay, I already told you. But like, didya hear the toilet flush, or the sink running?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t see the light from under the door?”

“No…” Tony leans his head back against the couch, “Damn, I was really out of it, wasn’t I?”

Peter shrugs, “It happens -”

“But it shouldn’t...I should’ve known it was just a dream.”

“But sometimes dreams are just as real as the real thing. I get it.”

“You’re a kid, you shouldn’t get it.”

“You’re an  _ adult _ and you shouldn’t get it.”

“Touché.”

After another brief lull of quietness, Peter whispers, “My body tried to put itself back together.”

Tony looks down at his charge in confusion, “Huh?”

Peter looks away from his hero, gaze instead going to the man’s coffee mug, “When I was...getting dusty, I could feel my bones breaking but my healing powers were trying to fix them, and -” the kid pauses to take in a shaky breath, “It hurt so fucking bad.”

_ Holy shit. _

The mechanic starts rubbing the tyke’s upper arm, “I’m sorry...that it happened and for bringing it up.”

“I didn’t want you worrying about me, that’s why I didn’t say anything.”

“I’m glad you didn’t listen to yourself for once, stop trying to spare my feelings.”

“I learn from the best.”

“For fuck’s sake,  _ you’re the kid, _ remember?”

“That’s still a stupid argument, remember?”

“God, I can’t win with you.”

“Good.”

Tony smiles in spite of himself, but it falls as fast as it came, “Thank you for telling me, by the way...I can’t imagine going through something like that.”

“Yeah...it wasn’t fun. Huh.”

“What?”

“No one else knows...telling you, it felt nice, I don’t know.”

“Sometimes it helps to get stuff like that off your chest.”

“Yeah...I just, um, don’t wanna tell anyone else. No one else will get it, I mean I know you don’t either but still, you were there and -”

“You don’t need to explain yourself to me, tell whoever you want. But I gotta admit, it makes me feel special.”

“I mean I feel special too, I can’t think of anyone who’d miss me so much that they’d mess up my bed.” Peter looks up at the older man, “It’s really nice.”

Tony grunts, “You can’t sleep in your bed again tonight and you think it’s ‘nice’? God, you’re a weird kid.”

“At least I’m not boring. And yet you still keep me around.”

The billionaire then lets out a loud yawn. His kid smirks at that and says, “We should probably go back to bed. I can just sleep on the couch.”

His mentor yawns again, using his free hand to try and stifle it but fails, “No, we have a guest room...and I don’t wanna go back to bed, I just need more coffee -”

_ “Hell _ no,” the kid wraps his arms around the man’s torso, keeping him in place, “Mr. Stark, you’re going back to bed.”

“I gotta be up in a few hours anyway, I’ll just stay up -” the man cuts himself off with yet another yawn, implying that he definitely won’t be able to stay awake much longer.

Peter rolls his eyes, “Yeah, I’m sure. Let’s just turn the TV on, maybe that’ll help.”

“Help what?”

“Your anxiety about falling asleep.”

“It’s not that -”

“Mr. Stark, how many times have I told you that you don’t need to be macho around me?” The teen reaches across his hero and grabs the remote off the end table before settling back into the man’s side. His voice softens, “I get it.” He then turns on the TV and sets it on low volume, “See? A nature documentary with a golf game-sounding narrator, you’ll be asleep in no time.”

“What about you, you going to bed?”

“I’m already in bed.” The spiderling snuggles even more into him, “You’re an amazing pillow.”

“Oh my God, Morgan says the same thing.”

“She speaks the truth.” Peter eyes a throw pillow that’s on the other side of the couch and grabs it. He then holds it up to Tony, “Here.”

The man asks between another bout of yawning, “What’s this?”

“You obviously don’t wanna go back to bed - which is understandable - and I don’t wanna sleep in another room so,” Peter smushes the pillow between Tony and the armrest, “Bed.”

“You’re  _ making _ me go to bed?”

“Someone’s got to.” The boy then yawns himself before he starts pushing the man to lay down, “So go to sleep already.”

Tony jokingly pretends to be an invalid and makes no effort to move, “Can’t, I’m stuck to the couch cushion,” he then says in a sing-song voice,  _ “Oh poor, pitiful me _ -”

Peter cuts him off in a snicker,  _ “Shut up.” _ He then grabs a blanket that’s folded over a nearby chair drapes it over both his father figure and himself, “I mean, you  _ could _ fall asleep upright, but your neck won’t like you in the morning -”

The man takes him by surprise and goes completely horizontal on the couch, dragging his kid with him. Tony then says, “You make a pretty good body pillow.”

“I found my calling.” The child adjusts the blanket to where it covers both of them and settles in, with his back against the cushions and head resting on the billionaire’s chest. He yawns as he says, “Why don’t we just do this every night?”

“Pepper might miss me.”

“No, she won’t.”

“Yeah, you’re right, she won’t. Morgan might get jealous though.”

“Eh, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” The boy’s voice then turns serious, “I’m not going anywhere, y’know.”

Tony starts mindlessly ruffling the tyke’s hair, “Thank you. And don’t be afraid to spare my feelings,  _ ever.” _

“I won’t if you won’t.”

The man grunts, “Deal.”

The two heroes take in the sound of the TV, not paying attention to what’s actually playing but instead using the images and monotone voices to keep them grounded. There certainly wasn’t a documentary about exotic animals while on Titan.

Peter, determined to not fall asleep first, keeps glancing at his father figure, head still facing the TV. After about ten minutes or so, the teen hears some faint, even snoring and smirks at the other genius. He starts to turn off the TV but holds back, afraid the act might wake up Tony.

He relaxes into the comfort, of everything that encompasses Iron Man, and succumbs to sleep while mumbling a soft, “G’night, Mr. Stark.”

The rest of the night is spent nightmare-free and so peaceful that the two geniuses sleep in until noon that same day. How they managed to sleep without being woken up by Morgan, they don’t have a clue, but it was a blessing.

It is the first time in months that the two of them felt so rested, Tony especially.

_ Maybe we  _ should _ do this more often. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!! I'm also on tumblr @baloobird


End file.
